High voltage pulse generator

A high voltage pulse generator comprising:

• a power supply having an ac output;
• an even number of capacitor charging circuits, each of the even number of capacitor charging circuits comprising an LC inversion Marx generator having two or more capacitors and a switch to control charging and discharging of the capacitors;
• a plurality of cell inverter transformers, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers comprising a primary winding and a secondary winding to supply ac power to each of the even number of capacitor charging circuits, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers having its primary winding connected across the ac output of the power supply, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers having its secondary winding connected exclusively to at least one of the two or more capacitors in one of the even number of capacitor charging circuits by a means for converting the ac power to dc power, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers and associated means for converting the ac power to dc power comprising a circuit to supply the ac output of the power supply to the two or more capacitors in half of the even number of capacitor charging circuits with inverted phase from the ac output of the power supply to the two or more capacitors in the remaining half of the even number of capacitor charging circuits;
• a pulse generating circuit for generating a train of periodic normal pulses except when a trigger event causes the pulse generating circuit to generate a trigger pulse;
• and
• a pulse processing circuit having a pulse processing circuit input for receiving the periodic normal pulses and trigger pulses from the pulse generating circuit, the pulse processing circuit generating a close switch output to close the switch in each of the LC inversion Marx generators when a trigger pulse is received.

A high voltage pulse generator comprising:

• a power supply having an ac output;
• an even number of capacitor charging circuits, each of the even number of capacitor charging circuits comprising an LC inversion Marx generator having two or more capacitors and a switch to control charging and discharging of the two or more capacitors, the two or more capacitors in all capacitor charging circuits connected in series to form a stacked charging circuit;
• a plurality of cell inverter transformers, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers comprising a primary winding and a secondary winding to supply ac power to each of the even number of capacitor charging circuits, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers having its primary winding connected across the ac output of the power supply, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers having its secondary winding connected exclusively to at least one of the two or more capacitors in one of the even number of capacitor charging circuits by a means for converting the ac power to dc power, each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers and associated means for converting the ac power to dc power comprising a circuit to supply the ac output of the power supply to the two or more capacitors in half of the even number of capacitor charging circuits with inverted phase from the ac output of the power supply to the two or more capacitors in the remaining half of the even number of capacitor charging circuits;
• a pulse generating circuit for generating a train of periodic normal pulses except when a trigger event causes the pulse generating circuit to generate a trigger pulse;
• a pulse processing circuit having a pulse processing circuit input for receiving the periodic normal pulses and trigger pulses from the pulse generating circuit, the pulse processing circuit generating a close switch output to close the switch in each of the LC inversion Marx generators when a trigger pulse is received;
• and
• a power modulator having an output connected to a pulsed load, the stacked charging circuit connected directly to the power modulator to provide a high voltage pulse to the pulsed load.

A method of generating a high voltage pulse comprising the steps of:

• connecting the primary winding of each of a plurality of cell inverter transformers to the ac output of a power supply;
• connecting the seconding winding of each of the plurality of cell inverter transformers to a rectifier means to convert the ac output of the power supply into dc power;
• and
• connecting each of the rectifier means to at least one of the capacitors in each of an even number of LC inversion Marx generators to provide a means for charging the capacitors, each of the even number of LC inversion Marx generators having a switch to control charging and discharging of the capacitors, half of the plurality of cell inverter transformers having their primary windings arranged in inverted phase to the ac output of the power supply from the remaining plurality of cell inverter transformers to charge the capacitors in half of the even number of LC inversion Marx generators in each half cycle of the ac output of the power supply.